Today marks the two year anniversary of this blog! It was on January 20, 2007 that I made my very first post to this blog. I started this blog just after attending the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show where I met some really beneficial people, like Bob Buskirk, a fellow tech site owner.

Since that time, this blog has seen 745 posts and 1940 comments over the past two years, which is pretty decent for a non-niche blog. I have really enjoyed updating the blog, sharing aspects of my tech site and personal life with my readers.

I have toyed with the idea of monetizing this blog or perhaps starting a niche blog (probably personal finance), but thus far, I haven’t acted on either of those ideas. We shall see what happens in 2009.

Updates as of late have been few and far between, which haven’t been on purpose. It just seems that I have less and less time to devote to the blog, but I will look to change that from this point forward. So, what’s been going on since my last update?

A CES 2009 No-Show

This was the first year since I started going to CES that I didn’t make it to Vegas for the annual technology trade show. I tossed around the idea of attending late last year but ultimately decided against it, mostly for financial reasons. CES is such a blast and equally as beneficial for my tech site, as I get to network and make new contacts with potential sponsors and other site owners which is invaluable. But, I didn’t let that get me down and did what I could from home and managed to secure a relationship with Intel, which is absolutely huge!

CES 2010 is definitely in my future, granted the show doesn’t go the way of COMDEX and cease to exist next year. Attendance was down this year but let’s hope they give it a few more years to rebound.

Ole Miss Wins 2009 Cotton Bowl

Ole Miss shocked the country and took Texas Tech to the woodshed in the 2009 Cotton Bowl on January 2, coming away with a 47-34 victory and proving once again that the Big 12 is overrated. The Rebs finished the season very strong, with a 31-13 win over LSU in the 1st annual Magnolia Bowl and absolutely dismantled Mississippi State 45-0 in the Egg Bowl. Ole Miss finished 15th nationally and is already being ranked as high as 5th in preseason polls for next year.

These accolades are well earned. After all, Ole Miss was the only team to beat Florida, the eventual National Champion. 2009 will be a great year for sure. Can you say SEC Champions?

Xbox 360

I told myself I would probably never buy another gaming console, especially a current-generation unit. They are just too expensive and I don’t play games enough to warrant the expense. But here I am, with a 360!

I ended up buying a Pro model from Josh after our last LAN party. He purchased two additional units for use at the party but turns out, we didn’t need them. I got a heck of a deal which is really the reason I bought it. And thanks to Left 4 Dead, I have actually been playing it quite a bit, as a group of about 5-6 of us play multiplayer almost nightly. If you are on Live and want to add me, just leave a comment with your Gamertag or e-mail me at: playafly187@ocia.net

Paying Off Debt

Since I started following Dave Ramsey about a year ago, I have cut out a ton of useless spending in my budget and have been working very hard to pay off debt that I have accumulated over the years. About 85% of my debt is student loans and I have been paying those off as fast as I can. I have only a single payment left on the one loan I have been attacking which is pretty exciting. My focus after that is the one remaining credit card balance I am carrying, then it is full steam ahead on my large student loan.

At first, it was really tough to cut back on unnecessary spending and trying to save money, but now that I have been doing it for almost a year, it is actually fun. I enjoy seeing how frugal I can be each month and how little I can get by on. Odd, yes, but it is very motivating.

Keeping Busy With Work

Many people wish they could work for themselves at home, create their own schedules and be their own boss. The reality is, it is tough. The reason I say this is because you are never “off work”. With a traditional job, once you leave the office, you are free. You don’t have to worry with work until the next day or after the weekend. When you work for yourself, you are always thinking about work and what needs to be done and when you are going to do it. I love what I do but it is pretty stressful and there is a lot of responsibility. I don’t think most people could do it.

Anyway, things with OCIA.net are still going strong. I have been focusing on attaining more sponsorships for the site, which means sharing the latest and greatest hardware with our readers. Things look bright for 2009 and I can’t wait to see what the year brings!

I have been looking to hire an additional reviewer and have taken a chance on two people in the past several months, both of which have screwed me over and basically stole the review items without doing any work. Its frustrating when someone with no morals comes along and throws a monkey wrench into what you have worked hard to do just for a free product. Its even more frustrating when you see these people move on to the next site they plan to scam.

On that note, if you are into the tech scene and think you might be interested in writing for my site, shoot me an email and we can talk.

I have also been doing some freelance writing for another tech site based in Mexico, Techspot. Things with this site have been going really well and I have had a good time reviewing for them and look forward to continue our relationship in 2009.

Texas Pickle

I had never heard of a Texas Pickle until just recently. Adam had been telling me about then for a while and finally decided to make a batch.

Basically, you take jalapenos, remove the insides, fill with cheese then wrap the entire thing in bacon. Bake in the oven or cook on the grill and you end up with what you see above!

I love trying new foods and the Texas Pickle was no exception and in fact, it was very good. I am not a huge fan of spicy foods but once gutted and cooked, the jalapeno was not spicy at all. I would recommend you give them a try sometime for sure.

And with that, I’m off to go make dinner…

Josh and I have been planning a Holiday LAN party for a few weeks. It’s been two years since our last LAN party so we were certainly overdue for one.

If you don’t already know, a LAN party is where you and your friends gather, bring your PC or gaming consoles, link them together and play games together! Our past parties have always been PC based but we decided to change it up and try an Xbox 360 LAN this time.

I prefer PC gaming, as it is much easier for me to control using a mouse and keyboard rather than a controller, but either way, each system has its pros and cons. Setup time with a console is virtually plug-and-play, while there is installation and long update / patch waits with PC games. Also, consoles are much easier to transport, but there are a few negatives with consoles. First, you need multiple consoles and televisions, as well as multiple controllers and games. Josh went above and beyond this time and made sure we had plenty of everything for a successful LAN.

As you can see, we had plenty of games to keep us busy both days.

Adam brought over his PS3 and connected it to his 24″ LCD screen. He is the only person that has a PS3 among the group so unfortunately, he was playing alone.

Here we have Left 4 Dead ready to go on one of the big screens.

Some Left 4 Dead split-screen gaming action.

More Left 4 Dead on another TV in the living room.

We also tried Stuntman: Ignition. I really liked this game but I don’t think Keith and Airica did too much.

Lunch time on day 2 and we decided on a Krystal Steamer Pack!

Mmmm delicious!

Winner! hah

Watched some of The Dark Knight while eating.

As evening approached, some bad weather moved into the area. Luckily there were no power outages to disrupt our gaming.

Some of the other snacks and food we had.

We finished the night off with UFC 92 which was one of the better UFC events this year. Notable victories include Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s first round knockout of Wanderlei Silva and Rashad Evans capturing the light-heavyweight title from Forrest Griffin via 3rd round TKO stoppage.

Overall, a very successful post-Christmas LAN party. I was unsure if I would like doing consoles instead of PCs but I think it worked out much better. Not having to spend hours waiting for PC games to install and update was a huge plus. Now we just have to work on getting everyone a 360 system and copies of good LAN games

Big thanks to Josh for hosting this event and all of the hassle he went through to get it running smoothly; it totally rocked!

As you can probably tell by my absence of posts lately, things have been pretty busy on my end. This is the “busy season” for hardware sites, as manufacturers are looking to get as much exposure as possible for the holiday buying season. I have been busy getting all of my staff “stocked up” with review items and have even taken a few on myself.

This is the latest item I am working on, a SilverStone FT01 Case, which features a Uni-body frame construction from the flagship Temjin TJ07.

We saw this TJ07 at SilverStone’s booth at the 2007 CES and have been anxious to check out their uni-body design ever since. Look for my review of the FT01 to hit OCIA.net sometime next week. We are also working on putting together a holiday contest / giveaway of sorts. Look for that to hit sometime right after Thanksgiving!

In other hardware news, I have started doing some freelance writing for another tech site, which has given me the opportunity to check out some really cool hardware and has been a blast so far. I have a big article in the works as well as two other reviews for that site, which I will link to when they are published.

Aside from computer work, there has been quite a bit going on lately that I want to take a minute and touch on.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and we all know what that means: lots of great food!

Josh and I are going to make deep fried turkey(s) this year. I first had deep fried turkey a few years ago at Keith’s sister’s house and OMG, it’s the best food I’ve ever had! A deep fried turkey is so juicy and tender - the exact opposite of what a traditionally cooked turkey is. I will be recording the cooking process and posting the video on here and YouTube, so be sure to check that out.

Other than that, Keith’s family has invited me over once again for their Thanksgiving dinner. They have invited me the past several years and I am really appreciative of that. I don’t really have a lot of family so it’s cool to be around them around the holidays.

On a sad note, Thanksgiving time has been a bit less happy, as it always reminds me of my mom. She passed away 7 years ago today, so this time of year always brings back those memories

Hockey

The CHL hockey season kicked off about a month ago. Josh and I purchased half-season tickets for the Mississippi RiverKings and have attended a handful of games so far. As of writing, we are off to a 7 - 6 season… not the best, but it could always be worse!

If you have never attended a hockey game, I would encourage you to give it a try. I never liked hockey but was invited to go to a game with a friend nearly 13 years ago (wow, has it been that long?!) and have been hooked ever since. Being there in person is so much fun and is nothing like watching it on TV, which I agree is pretty boring!

College Football

In other sports news, my college football team, the Ole Miss Rebels, have been having a pretty good season, especially compared to last year. We are 6 - 4 on the season and gained bowl eligibility last Saturday. This is the first time the Rebs have been bowl eligible since the 2003 season. The only question that remains now is, which bowl will we be headed for?

The final two games of the regular season will determine that. We play LSU this Saturday (2:30 pm CST on CBS) and Mississippi State on Black Friday. If we win out, which is very possible, we are almost 100% headed to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas. A loss or two losses and we are more than likely headed to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee.

I am hoping for a bid to the Cotton Bowl, as that is a much better bowl, but a trip to the Liberty Bowl would mean I could possibly attend, which would be sweet in itself. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the season plays out, especially the LSU game this weekend. I’m betting Ole Miss pulls out the victory - you heard it here first!

UFC

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has been putting on some pretty good events lately. Since moving to my new place, we have ordered each UFC pay-per-view and have been having parties here on fight night. The most recent was UFC 91, which pitted champ Randy Couture against the 3 - 1 newcomer Brock Lesnar.

Lesnar, formerly in the WWE, is an absolute monster and I fully expected him to be the new UFC Heavyweight champion after the night was over. He came in weighing 40 pounds more than Couture, is 18 years younger and is super quick and agile for his size.

And sure enough, Lesnar ended things in the 2nd round after catching Couture with a shot that dropped him to the mat. Lesnar capitalized and reigned down a series of hammer fists that forced the ref to call the fight. Congrats to Lesnar on this victory and I will be looking forward to seeing him defend the title against the winner of Nogueira / Mir.

Speaking of that fight, which will take place at UFC 92 on December 27, there are also two other headlining fights on that card. The first pits Light Heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin against undefeated Rashad Evans in what should be a great fight. The other main event caliber fight that night is Quinton “Rampage” Jackson against Wanderlei Silva. Jackson has fought Silva twice and both times, he has pretty much been destroyed. Rampage is one of my favorite fighters so I am certainly hoping he pulls out the victory. As they say, third time is a charm, right?

Big 3 Bailout

Oh geez, don’t get me started! Are you friggin’ serious? It totally baffles me how companies that make SOO much money, as these three do… they have one “bad” year and they are on the verge of bankruptcy! Where the hell did all of that money you made over the past several years go? Seriously. Do they simply not keep money in the company?

I certainly hope Congress doesn’t bail out these idiots. What kind of message will that send to other companies if they do?

Just because people don’t want to buy your products in flocks, for whatever reason, you are instantly entitled to have your company saved by the government? What’s next, Nikon asking for help because they aren’t selling enough cameras, Microsoft asking for money because they aren’t selling enough copies of Windows? Seriously, where does it stop?

So let’s say the Big 3 go bankrupt and all those people lose their jobs. Guess what? THERE ARE OTHER JOBS IN THIS COUNTRY YOU CAN DO! So many people tend to think that losing their job would be the end of the world. No it won’t. Go get a different job.

Sure, it would be a change of pace and you may not even like it, but it isn’t disaster. You can still survive.

Economy In General

Stocks continue to drop, unemployment is up, etc. The world is coming to an end!

Gah, whatever. Have you been to Wal Mart recently? I went last Saturday and it was a mad house. Wonder where all of these people are getting their money! And when Black Friday rolls around, I have money that says you will still see people lined up in front of all the major retail stores hours before they open!!

Sales may be down this year compared to past years, but is that a bad thing? Maybe that just means people aren’t consuming like a fat kid sitting up to his neck in skittles. It’s amazing how much junk people buy and they think that junk is going to make them happy.

All jokes aside, 90% of the economy is between your ears. If things are right in your house and you know how to control your finances and not spend like a drunken Congressman, everything will be fine and you have nothing to worry about.

There are so many people that aren’t affected in the least by the current state of the economy. Those people call in every day to the Dave Ramsey show and tell their stories. How are they able to survive this horrible economy without losing any sleep about it?

They are debt free. They have no credit cards or other stupid payments holding them back.

So yeah, that’s about all I have for today. I will try to post updates a bit more frequently over the next few weeks. Please feel free to chime in with your thoughts in the comment section below!

A few weeks ago, G4’s Attack of the Show (AOTS) took a look at the OCZ NIA, or Neural Impulse Actuator for short. The NIA is a gaming accessory, a headband of sorts, that recognizes facial movements and translates those to in-game actions.

I actually had the opportunity to try a pre-production version of the NIA during the 2008 CES in Las Vegas this past January.

I spent maybe 15 minutes working with Dr. Michael Schuette, VP of Technology Development at OCZ. I went through a very brief calibration process then jumped into a UT2004 Deathmatch. The NIA had a pretty big learning curve, but after about 5-10 minutes I was able to control my character somewhat and managed a few frags. I was able to raise my eyebrows slightly to fire a gun which worked surprisingly well, but walking and jumping were a bit more difficult to master. Had I done a proper calibration and configuration, I am sure it would have worked much better.

The moral of the story is that the device did in fact work, and with more time to play with it, it could work quite well.

As I was saying, AOTS took a look at the NIA in their Gadget Pr0n segment recently and well, let’s just say they didn’t give it a fair review at all. A 4-minute TV segment is not enough time for a first-time user to really give a fair opinion.

That being said, I just caught word that Dr. Michael will be on the show today to challenge Kevin Pereira to a gaming contest. Kevin will use a standard mouse and keyboard while Dr. Michael will demonstrate the NIA. I’ve seen Dr. Michael use the NIA both in person and on video, and I’m pretty confident he is going to totally destroy Kevin!

Be sure to tune in and check it out!

I got the idea for this post from Bob’s post on the same topic. I really enjoyed reading his post and looking at his past workstations and how they has evolved over the years. Call me nosy if you wish!

So here we are, doing my version of the same post. I got my first computer way back in 1998 as a Christmas gift. At that time, I barely even knew how to turn it on, but I knew I loved technology and wanted to learn as much about computers as I could. Within a year or two, I was already working on websites so I needed a workstation. Below are the photos I was able to find of my workstation then, now and everything between!

This is the earliest photo I have of my workstation, dated sometime in 2001. This was the first computer desk I ever purchased and it worked pretty well for my needs at that time. Needless to say, that audio system could pump out some bass! This was when I still lived at home with my parents.

Here we have my “workstation” in college… sorta. You can see some of my main system in the background, but the majority of my time my freshman year was spent in my girlfriend’s dorm room, so I did all of my website work on this laptop.

This is the next workstation in my photo collection. This photo was from when I lived at Stephanie’s house during the summer of 2004 between spring and fall semesters. Kim and I didn’t have a place to stay that summer so Steph offered to let us stay with her.

This was my first setup after I got married and was living in the married student housing on campus. There is a futon on the right where you could lay and watch TV when you weren’t on the computer.

I ended up moving the futon out of the computer room so I could add another table and have my own workstation again. There simply wasn’t enough space at the other desk. I also made the switch from CRT to LCD monitors, which saved a ton of space. This particular photo shots my external watercooling case that I constructed from a Silverstone SFF chassis.

This was my workstation at my old apartment in Oxford. As you can see, there is plenty of desk space, which allowed me to get a lot done. I think my days at that apartment were the most productive… of course, that could be because I was no longer in school.

And finally, my current workstation. I got this desk from Keith when I moved - my first real “computer” desk since 2001. I had been using folding tables since that first desk because they were easy to transport and offered a ton of real estate.

And there you have it. Feel free to post links to your workstations, as I love to check out other people’s setups

I booked my hotel room for the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show way back in May. At that point, everything seemed to be on track for another eventful week in Las Vegas come January. But now, I am not so sure we will be making the annual trip. Here’s why.

Since being on the Dave Ramsey plan, I have come to realize how valuable money really is. In 2007, I put the entire price of our hotel on a credit card. I didn’t think twice about it then but looking back, yeah, not a good idea. And now that I refuse to use credit cards anymore, that is no longer an option. BTW, keep in mind that Vegas hotels jack the price of rooms by as much as 4x the normal rates during CES week, so it gets very expensive.

Besides that, I checked airline prices last week and discovered prices had increased over $300 from last year! I also need to budget for food which is pretty spendy as well, especially if you don’t want to eat fast food every day. Can you tell this is already getting extremely expensive?

Next I have to factor in my current situation here at home. Since I moved back in July, living expenses have increased a bit - a fair trade-off most certainly, but that means more money going out each month.

So really, it all comes down to money and trying to justify spending that much money to make it happen. Our first year was certainly well worth the money spent, as it really got my foot into the door and I met a bunch of really great people, etc. Last year, I really don’t think I accomplished too much in terms of making new contacts, meeting potential sponsors, etc. My plan for this year, however, is (was?) to connect with companies we currently do not work with yet, thus making the whole trip worthwhile in the long run.

But, all hope is not lost. I have pretty much ruled out doing the hotel thing, but it may be possible that we could stay with our friend Joe again, like we did in 2007. Joe lives about 20-30 minutes from the Vegas strip, which means we would be limited with how much time we can spend out each day covering the show and more importantly, attending press events and late-night parties. The benefit here, of course, is there are no overpriced hotel fees, which then puts the trip back into the do-able column in terms of money.

So right now, I’m unsure what I am going to do but I plan to make a decision before the end of the month.

I spent the better half of today moving my main system into a new HTPC case for a review on OCIA.net. I really am not fond of case reviews, especially using my main work system, because something ALWAYS goes wrong. Today was no exception.

I finally finished the transfer and photo shoot, booted up the system, which worked for a few minutes… then the trouble began. The system froze at the Windows loading screen. I shut down, then tried to start up again… FAIL. The system would power on for a split second, then power off. I tried just about everything I could think of:

Removed motherboard from case
Removed add-in cards
Put power supply on PSU tester, all volts were fine
Cleared CMOS
Reseated memory
Reseated ATX and all other power cables
Checked GPU, CPU, Northbridge for excessive heat

Funny thing, if I pressed power then reset , it would sometimes boot but only for about 5 min then randomly shuts off.

I was completely out of options, but something that one of my writers (Rutledge) said got me thinking. He said it sounded like a heat issue… but I had already checked the obvious sources. Then it hit me.

During the move, I had taken the cover off the power supply to blow out the dust inside. Perhaps something happened to the PSU fan while I was doing this…

Sure enough, the fan wasn’t spinning… and this is why. When I replaced the cover, a wire had become tangled in one of the fan blades and I didn’t notice it.

I fixed the wire and everything is working perfectly now. Now that I have wasted several hours… I should probably shower and get some sleep.

We just posted our AMD K10 - Phenom Overclocking Guide over on OCIA.net. We have mostly been focusing on product reviews lately, so I thought it would be a nice change of pace to tackle some modern overclocking for a change. We also have an Intel overclocking article in the works, as well as something for you ATi CrossFire guys!

Be sure to check out the article and don’t forget to Digg it!

We just launched a new feature on the site / forum, our Member Photo Gallery. We have several categories where you can share photos of your computer, hardware, tech toys, cars, anything you want really (within reason, of course). To help celebrate the opening of our photo gallery and stir up some excitement, we have teamed up with Tagan to give away one of their CS-Monolize Super Tower Cases!

To enter, you need to post at least 10 photos and comment on 5 other photos to get your name in the hat! Head over to the OCIA.net forums to get started today! Good luck

OCIA.net has teamed up with one of our sponsors, NZXT, to give away a sweet computer case to one lucky winner.

All you need to do to get your name in the hat is post a photo(s) of your computer case / workspace. You are required to show the PC on with OCIA.net loaded on the monitor, so we know you didn’t just find a random junker PC in a dumpster or something. We will judge who has the crappiest rig and is most needing of a brand new NZXT Tempest and select a winner!

There is only one week left to enter, and the best part (for you) - there aren’t many entries yet, so you have a really good chance of winning!

Head on over to the OCIA.net forum and get your entry in today!